


Come On, Baby, Light My Fire

by SerotoninShift



Series: Set the Night on Fire [1]
Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Age Difference, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Experience Difference, M/M, Oral Sex, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Power Bottom Lio Fotia, Recovery, References to Past Trauma and Food Insecurity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:28:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 15,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21775204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerotoninShift/pseuds/SerotoninShift
Summary: Lio sets the dice down, folds his hands on top of his desk. “Galo,” he says with exaggerated patience, “you’re… how old are you again?”“Twenty-two!”“Okay. You’re a twenty-two-year-old manchild with more enthusiasm than is good for you and one brain cell to handle it with. I’m a former eldritch being of unimaginable power and considerably more years than you.”Galo waggles his eyebrows. “I dig experienced,” he says.Lio’s pale brows levitate into his hairline. “Are youseriouslyhitting on me right now?” he asks in disbelief. “Or are you just trying to get a rise out of me? And either way, do youreallythink that’s a good idea?”Galo slams his hand on Lio’s desk. “I think it’s the best goddamn idea I’ve ever had!” he says.~ in which ~Lio is struggling with the aftermath of the Second World Blaze; mourning his fire, dealing with his past trauma, reintegrating into society, rebuilding his life.Galo is struggling with the fact that Lio isn't kissing him. What’supwith that?
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos, background Meis/Gueira - Relationship
Series: Set the Night on Fire [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1576615
Comments: 242
Kudos: 1202





	1. Hello, I Love You

Galo may be dumb, but he’s not _stupid._ He notices things. He’s observant. Nothing gets by him. Especially not the way Lio has a hand on his shoulder right now and is leaning into his back, laughing and saying, “No, look, you’re doing it wrong…”

Galo glances back at him from his crouched position over the circle drawn in the dirt. “How am I doing it _wrong?_ You just roll the dice, right?” He picks up the three dice he dropped, shakes his handful. Meis, crouched across the circle mirroring Galo, long hair brushing the ground, is chuckling a little too.

“You are so gonna lose, big guy,” he says. 

“This is a practice round!” Galo says. “I gotta get fives and ones, right? Or three of a kind?”

“Yeah, or four of a kind, or… you know what, just roll them, I’ll tell you if you get anything good,” Lio says.

“Fuckin’ cheaters!” Meis says indignantly. Lio ignores him. Galo rolls the six dice. They scatter and bounce, but stay within the circle.

“Nice,” Lio says, “three fours.”

“I leave those, right? And I can roll the rest again to get more points?”

“Yeah, but you might want to…”

Galo has already picked up the three dice and rolled them.

“Okay,” Lio says. “You got a five. I would…”

“Roll the other two again!” Galo says, grabbing them and rolling them again.

“Okay, that’s...” Lio says.

“BURNOUT!” Meis whoops. “You got nothin’! You lose all your points! My turn!”

“Well, shoot,” Galo says as Meis scoops up the dice. Lio whacks Galo gently on the back of the head.

“You gotta have _strategy,_ Galo,” he says. “You gotta know when to call it. If you just keep rolling, you’ll eventually roll a burnout and lose all your points.”

“Ha!” Galo grins at Lio. “Galo Thymos has never ‘called it’ in his _life!_ Balls to the wall, baby!”

Meis shakes his head. “You are _so_ gonna lose,” he says.

***

Galo loses. 

***

“Listen,” he’s saying to Lio as they walk back to the worksite, “I _do_ have a strategy, it’s…”

 _“There_ you are!” Gueira pops out from behind a pile of rubble. “We need your matoi thinger to help move a big chunk, Varys can’t lift it by himself. He’s mad about it, too.”

“I’ll suit back up in a sec!” Galo says happily. There's not a lot of fires to fight these days, but he loves this new part of his job description; demolishing the monstrosity that Kray built, alongside the rest of Burning Rescue and a suite of reconstruction teams using more traditional equipment. Galo doesn’t like to think about the horrible days following Kray’s attempted... _departure;_ rescue squads, including Burning Rescue, had stretched themselves to the limit extracting the hundreds of former Burnish trapped in those godforsaken pods, but it took nearly two days of non-stop work to get everyone out, disoriented, dehydrated, injured, or worse. Lio had refused to stop, hurt and exhausted as he was, until he collapsed on the second day. Galo had had to carry him, sobbing weakly, to a cot in one of the emergency shelters and basically sit on him until he fell asleep. Galo can’t wait until the hideous ship is nothing but a bad memory. Every day he tears pieces of it apart with gusto.

“What were you guys doing? Taking a long lunch?” Gueira says, eyeing the three of them suspiciously.

“We taught Galo how to play Burnout,” Meis says.

“Huh,” Gueira says. “That’s a Burnish game, I bet he _sucked.”_

“Hey!” Galo says indignantly. Then he pauses. “Actually I totally did,” he admits. “What do you mean, it’s a Burnish game? We didn’t need any fire or anything.”

Meis, Gueira, and Lio all look at each other. Lio finally shrugs.

“Couldn’t use fire in the camps or you’d get the hose,” he says. “But we used to get these Red Cross packages with donated shit, it was a running joke that any games that came into camp were missing pieces but there were always extra dice. Someone along the way made up Burnout because you just need six dice to play, and you could usually put together a set.”

“Huh.” Galo hates how casually Lio sometimes slips phrases like _or you’d get the hose_ into conversation. Galo hasn’t asked him directly about his life in the camps before he became the leader of the Mad Burnish, but he’s started to get a sketchy outline and it’s pretty bleak.

“That’s really… creative?” he says. 

“Burnish make do,” Lio says, with an oddly nostalgic smile. Galo scowls.

“Shouldn’t have had to,” he mutters. “They shoulda given you games with all the pieces, at least.”

Gueira snorts. “Yeah, _that_ was number one on our list of demands,” he says scathingly. “Idiot.”

“Lay off,” Lio says sharply. “Only _I_ get to call him an idiot.” 

Gueira looks a little taken aback, but then he grins. “Well, I guess it takes one to know one,” he quips.

Lio holds up his middle finger at Gueira. “Sit on it and spin,” he says fondly. Galo barks out a startled laugh.

Gueira returns the gesture, still grinning. “Up yours, boss,” he says, and turns on his heel and starts walking back toward the work site. “Tell your boyfriend to get his ass in gear, we got work to do,” he says over his shoulder.

Galo grins himself. _“Ha,”_ he says, elbowing Lio, “he thinks I’m your _boyfriend.”_

“No, he’s just being a dick,” Lio says. “Anyway, you should _be_ so lucky.” Lio turns and follows Gueira.

Galo watches Lio walk away. God, he really _would_ be lucky. He’s been trying _very_ hard not to overthink their kiss in the engine core; it was medically necessary! He was saving a life! And he’d been so scared Lio’s lips would crumble to ash under his that he hadn’t been able to appreciate the experience at the time. But when he prods at the memory, he finds that jumbled up in all the fear and desperation is the revelation that Lio’s lips are _soft._

Giving in to the inevitable, Galo checks out Lio’s butt.

Yeah. It’s a great butt. Lio’s cute as hell. 

Galo might have to do something about that.

***

Galo moves rubble for a few hours. Meis had shown up at the worksite on day one and turned out to be great at driving a Bobcat (“Grew up in Bumblefuck, Texas, whatcha expect,” he’d explained laconically), and Gueira is never far from Meis’ side, though he contributes mostly by yelling. Lio is here today because he wanted a break from office work, and he gamely puts his hardhat back on and helps the crew gutting the interior of the ship for salvageable parts and tech. Galo occasionally glimpses a flash of pale green hair under a yellow hardhat, and it makes him smile. He gets to see Lio a lot; Burning Rescue set him up a “temporary” office in their storage closet and Lio seems to have no intention of ever leaving. But it’s fun to see him in another context, without that worry line he gets between his eyebrows when he’s poring over jumbled records trying to find someone’s next-of-kin, or filling out endless requisition forms for supplies, or writing one of his angry letters to Promepolis’ interim government demanding better housing, or reparations for seized property, or a job training program. He’s still the _de facto_ leader of the Burnish, and their fiercest advocate. And no one at Burning Rescue has ever mentioned that a storage closet in a fire station full of muscular, heavily-armed firefighters might be a particularly safe place for a man who certain Kray Foresight loyalists might like to see gone. If Lucia builds intricate traps and alarm systems in her spare time, and Varys always carries a sidearm, and Ignis installs security cameras on the doors and windows, those are just healthy precautions in a city still recovering from a humanitarian and natural disaster, right? Right.

Galo loads the last piece of I-beam from the section they’ve been dismantling into a dumpster. Varys stomps up behind him, tosses a chuck of concrete in, then says, “Break time?” Galo nods and they give each other mech suit fist bumps. Gueira, Meis, and Lio have had the same idea; they’re sitting in a row on a short concrete wall. Galo pilots his mech over to them, pops the hatch, and hops out. 

He nearly knocks over another man, wearing the standard-issue coveralls of one of the employee work crews. “Watch it!” the man says. “I’m walkin’ here!” 

“Sorry,” Galo says.

“Hey, you’re that guy,” the man says. He looks at Galo for a long moment. His face darkens. “This is all your fault,” he says accusingly.

Galo furrows his brow. “Probably?” he says.

“Yeah,” the man says. “You caught that Burnish asshole, but then you _teamed up_ with him? You guys wrecked this place in your dumb mech!” 

“Uh, we kind of saved the world? And Kray Foresight wrecked at least _half_ of this,” Galo says defensively.

“Well, at least _Kray Foresight_ had enough sense to…”

“Hello.”

Lio has appeared soundlessly behind the man’s right shoulder. The man jumps.

“I think my friend was just coming to join us,” Lio says smoothly. “I have some things I need to discuss with him. If you’ll excuse us?” The man stares at Lio and his eyes widen. Then he looks back at Galo and glares, but he doesn’t say anything. Galo glares back at him, steps around him to join Lio.

“Fuckin’ _Burnish,”_ the man mutters, just barely loud enough to hear. “Shoulda left them in those pods to rot.”

Lio doesn’t give any warning. He just launches himself at the man, in total silence, and punches him right in the gut. The man doubles over and Lio knees him in the crotch and shoves him. He goes down like a sack of potatoes into the fetal position and Lio sits on him and raises a fist and Galo grabs Lio under the armpits and hauls him off the other man, Lio hissing like a startled cat.

“Lio, NO!” Galo yells. Lio flails his legs, kicking Galo in the shins. Galo holds on. The man staggers up, holding himself.

“You little shit!” he moans. “I’m pressing charges! This is assault!”

“Take a walk, buddy,” Galo growls. “Or I’ll report you to your supervisor for racism and harassment. You really want to get reported by the hero of Burning Rescue? You’ll never work in this city again.”

“Fuck you,” the man spits, but he limps away.

“Galo, you asshole!” Lio hisses. “Let me go!”

Galo holds on. “It’s not worth it, Lio,” he says into Lio’s head. “I wanna punch him too, but do you really wanna get hit with assault charges? You’re _still on probation.”_

Lio stops struggling.

“You can’t fight everything,” Galo says. “That’s not how it _works_ anymore, okay? You need to _chill.”_

 _“You_ chill,” Lio says sullenly, but he’s still in Galo’s grasp. Galo puts him down, lets him go. Lio takes a few quick steps away, brushes his jacket off.

“Shoulda let me punch him in his stupid fucking face,” Lio mutters.

“Lio, if you mess up your probation you could go to _jail,”_ Galo says, horrified.

“Ha! You think _I_ care about _going to jail?_ I’ve been ready to go to jail pretty much my whole life!”

“I’d miss you, though,” Galo says.

Lio looks at him. Galo flushes.

“Don’t you want to keep working on Burnish stuff? You can’t do that if you’re in jail,” Galo says.

“Yeah,” Gueira says. Galo hadn’t realized he and Meis were right behind him. “For once the idi… _Galo_ has a point.”

Lio huffs. “Gueira,” he says, “if I’m going to work on ‘Burnish stuff’ I think I should head back to the office. Can you give me a ride.”

“Sure thing, boss.”

Lio looks at Galo. 

“Thanks,” he says, curt. Then he walks away stiffly, Gueira following.

Meis puts a hand on his arm. Galo realizes he’s been standing there stupidly, staring after them, for a long time. 

“Hey,” Meis says, “thanks for having his back.”

“I said I would,” Galo says. “And I meant it.”

The rest of the afternoon goes by pretty slowly without any flashes of pale green in Galo’s peripheral vision.

***

When Galo gets back to Burning Rescue headquarters later, Lio’s still there, staring sourly at his usual paperwork. Galo leans into Lio’s office.

“Hey Lio,” he says. 

“Yes,” Lio says, barely looking up. Galo comes in, stands just inside the doorway. 

“Check out what I got at Gamestop,” he says. He holds up a little bag. Lio looks up, puzzled. Galo reaches into the bag, pulls out a die.

“They’re metal!” he says enthusiastically. “And they’re kind of shiny and Promare-colored!”

“Are those _dice?”_

“Six of ‘em! Check out the cool chunky sound they make when you roll ‘em!” Galo shakes the rest of the dice into his hand and tosses them onto Lio’s desk. They make a _great_ chunky sound. One of them bounces and lands in Lio’s coffee mug, splashing coffee all over the papers he has spread out near it.

“Whoops,” Galo says sheepishly.

Lio looks at him like he can’t decide whether to be annoyed or charmed. Galo hopes it’s mostly the latter. Galo picks up the coffee mug, gulps down the remaining coffee (it’s cold) and fishes the die out. Lio shakes the spilled coffee off his papers.

“You got me _dice,”_ Lio says, eyeing the others scattered across his desk.

“Now you can kick my ass at Burnout any time!” Galo says. He puts the mug, die, and dice bag down on Lio’s desk. “Sorry about your coffee. I got excited.” 

“You really are an idiot,” Lio says, a tiny smile quirking up the corner of his mouth.

“Oh, you love me,” Galo says comfortably, lacing his hands behind his head. “You think I’m great. You wanna kiss me on the lips. BAM!” 

Okay, whoops, that last part just kind of slipped out. But Galo’s gonna roll with it. Time to flirt!

“Galo.” Now Lio looks annoyed. It’s fucking adorable. “That’s not even a sound effect for kissing.”

“It is when _I_ do it! Admit it. You wanna plant one right here.” He puckers up, points at his pout. Lio scowls.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Lio says severely, but is he maybe blushing a little? Galo thinks he _is_. Lio picks the dice up off the desk, shakes them. “These are very nice, thank you, but your seduction technique needs work.” 

Galo makes big puppy dog eyes at him. “C’mon, am I not pretty enough for your fancy tastes? Those were the most expensive dice in the store!” He’s pushing it, he knows; this is either going to end with Lio kissing him or Lio _punching_ him. But Galo would be pretty pleased either way, so. Winning. 

Lio sets the dice down, folds his hands on top of his desk. “Galo,” he says with exaggerated patience, “you’re… how old are you again?”

“Twenty-two!”

“Okay. You’re a twenty-two-year-old manchild with more enthusiasm than is good for you and one brain cell to handle it with. I’m a former eldritch being of unimaginable power and considerably more years than you.”

Galo waggles his eyebrows. “I dig experienced,” he says.

Lio’s pale brows levitate into his hairline. “Are you _seriously_ hitting on me right now?” he asks in disbelief. “Or are you just trying to get a rise out of me? And either way, do you _really_ think that’s a good idea?”

Galo slams his hand on Lio’s desk. “I think it’s the best goddamn idea I’ve ever had!” he says. Lio rolls his eyes.

“You couldn’t _handle_ me. Have you ever even _kissed_ anyone, you innocent little _acorn?_ I thought you were too busy fighting fires.”

Galo is extremely offended by this. “Yeah, I’ve kissed people! I’ve kissed _you!_ Just because I was saving your life doesn’t mean it doesn’t _count!”_

Lio definitely turns a little red. “Well, it _shouldn’t_ count. Go kiss someone who’s not… go kiss someone your own age.”

“Nah.” Galo leans forward, serious. “Someone who’s not _what?_ What were you gonna say?”

“Galo. Forget it. It’s not happening.” Lio picks his pen up, applies himself ostentatiously to his paperwork.

“Alright, alright, I’m outta here,” Galo says. “Come find me later if you wanna play Burnout, though!” Lio shakes his head and pointedly ignores him as he backs out of the room, but Galo can _see_ him smiling a little. Galo’s gotten pretty good at seeing Lio’s hidden smiles.

Galo takes stock while he’s changing back into his civvies after showering in the locker room. Normally, in a situation like this, Galo would back off. Lio said no, and that’s it. You gotta respect a no. But underneath Galo’s (sharp, painful) disappointment, there’s a thread of… suspicion.

Does Lio _really_ not want him? Galo's been _noticing_ things, like the way Lio leaned on him during their game, and the hidden smiles, that seem to, maybe, indicate otherwise. Is he just saying no because… what? Because he’s not… what? Is this one of those weird self-sacrificing things he does?

It warrants further investigation, at the very least. You can say a lot of things about Galo Thymos, but you can’t say he ever backed down from a challenge.


	2. We Could Be So Good Together

_Tuesday._

“What is _this?”_ Lio drops a chocolate bar with a ribbon tied around it on the breakroom table in front of Galo. Galo looks up at him innocently through his eyelashes.

“What do you mean? Can’t I get you a little present?”

Lio narrows his eyes. “Did you spill coffee on my papers again?”

“What? No! I just wanted to do something nice for you, firefly. You work so hard.”

“I don’t… wait. What did you just call me?”

“Firefly! Because you’re a cute firebug!”

“Galo.”

_“What?”_

“You can’t give me a pet name.”

“Uh _,_ obviously I just _did.”_

“Have some respect. I’m the former leader of the infamous Mad Burnish. I’m not _cute.”_

“You are _too._ You’re my little firefly, is what you are.” 

“Galo, oh my god,” Lio says. Galo grins at him.

“Do you not want the chocolate, firefly? I’ll eat it if you don’t want it.” He reaches for it.

“Give me that!” Lio snatches it off the table before Galo can grab it. Then he pulls the ribbon off, snaps the whole bar in half without even unwrapping it, and tosses one half onto the table.

“There. Don’t say I never did anything for you,” Lio says, and goes back to his office, where he squirrels the half a bar away in a drawer.

Later, Galo sees a very familiar-looking ribbon tying back Lio’s little ponytail. He doesn’t say anything about it, but he smiles to himself. Further investigation is definitely warranted.

***

_Wednesday._

Galo finds Lio on the roof. Lio goes up there sometimes to get fresh air or be alone or something weird like that. Galo saunters over to where Lio’s sitting with his legs dangling over the edge of the roof and flops down next to him, looks out over the city.

“Whatcha doin’?” he finally says. Lio’s mouth quirks up in his little smile.

“Just sitting here,” Lio says. “Thinking about things.”

“Can’t relate,” Galo says cheerfully. Lio laughs, a startled, unselfconscious giggle that lights up Galo’s heart. They sit there in companionable silence for a moment. Lio looks at Galo out of the corner of his eye.

“I don’t _really_ think you’re an idiot,” Lio says suddenly. “I know we give you a hard time, especially Gueira, but it’s because we like you.”

Galo grins. “I know, we’re the same way in Burning Rescue. Those guys call me an idiot all the time, it’s how they show affection.”

“Okay,” Lio says. “You’re actually really…” He stops.

Galo looks at him curiously. “C’mon, Lio, don’t leave me hangin’ like that,” he says.

“You knew,” Lio says after a moment. “You came for me, when I was raging. If Kray and I had fought, we might have killed each other. You knew how to cool me down. And… in the engine core. You figured out how to save me. You’re not dumb at all. You just _act_ dumb.”

Galo fidgets uncomfortably. “I saw you try to save that girl. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Lio gives him a long, thoughtful look.

“I should have let you try to help her,” he says finally. He looks away. “Maybe you could have done what I couldn’t.”

“Lio,” Galo says, pained, “you did everything you could. You didn’t even know me. I came in there and… and pointed a _gun_ at you guys… I didn’t know…”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Lio says gently, “of course you didn’t know. You thought we were dangerous. And the thing is. We _were.”_

Galo is silent. After a moment, Lio continues.

“My parents were killed in the First World Blaze. I don’t remember them. I was barely one. Burnish power _is_ dangerous when it’s not controlled. But. We could have learned to live together peacefully. We could have used that power to do so much _good._ I was trying to get people to see that, trying to work towards something better for us all, when I found out that _Kray Foresight…”_ Lio stops.

“When you found out that Kray Foresight was experimenting on your people,” Galo says softly. “Torturing them.”

Lio looks away. “Yes,” he says. “Peace wasn’t an option, after that. I… I hope it doesn’t sound arrogant to say that I was the strongest Burnish I knew of. Not a lot of Burnish could do the things I could. I’d never been able to test the limits of my powers, and I didn’t _want_ to fight. I was... afraid. Of what I might be capable of, if I really let loose. But I knew I had to do what was right, for my people. I should have done it sooner, but I thought... I really thought we could do it peacefully, until Foresight... Anyway, I broke out of the camp. I destroyed the whole place. I took everyone to the mountains. And then I went to find Meis and Gueira. They had already started fighting Foresight. When I joined them, we got organized. You know the rest.”

“Yeah.” There’s another long pause. Lio sighs.

“I don’t regret what we did, when we sent the Promare back to their own world. They… they made monsters out of some people.” Galo winces internally as he gets a flash of Kray’s snarling face. 

“But sometimes I miss them,” Lio continues softly. 

“Oh,” Galo says.

“I don’t remember a time without the Promare. I was only four when I became Burnish. I’ve always heard them. They made me strong. They gave me the power I needed to save my people.” Lio’s face darkens, then. “I don’t miss always feeling that compulsion to _burn_ , though _._ You don’t know what it’s like, the constant willpower it took to control the flames.”

“Sounds… sounds tough.”

“I didn’t know they were aliens. With their own thoughts and desires. I’m glad. That means… it wasn’t all me.”

“What wasn’t?”

Lio looks at him fiercely. “My desire to see the whole unjust world burn to the ground.”

“Dude,” Galo says, “you can’t just say stuff like that to a firefighter.”

Lio smiles at him crookedly. “You literally helped me set the planet on fire,” he says.

“Excuse _you,_ I did the part where we shielded all the living things and most of the infrastructure.”

Lio’s smile fades a bit. “Yeah. Without you, I might have… I couldn’t have done it. Not without hurting people.”

“Nah,” Galo says. “You would have figured it out. Don’t worry, I know you. You wouldn’t have burned down the world if you couldn’t save everybody.”

Lio gives him another long look.

“Thanks, Galo,” he finally says.

Galo’s not sure what Lio is thanking him for, but he says, “Yeah, no problem!”

They sit there for awhile, watching the construction cranes swing across the skyline.

“Hey,” Galo says finally. “This is pretty romantic, right? Looking out over the city? Sharing our feelings? You think you might want to reconsider kissing me?”

“Galo,” Lio says. 

“Yeah?”

“Stop being ridiculous.”

 _“Dude!_ It’s not _ridiculous,_ it would be _awesome!_ It would be even awesomer than Galo de Lion!”

“‘Awesomer’ is not a word. And I will _not_ be caught on the _roof_ of a _fire station_ in a compromising position with a much younger man,” Lio says firmly.

“Aw,” Galo says, disappointed. “How old _are_ you, anyway? You keep saying you’re way older than me but I’m not sure I believe you.”

“I’m thirty-one.”

“Thirty-one? That’s only uuuuuuuuh…” Galo pauses theatrically.

Lio rolls his eyes. “Don’t pretend to be dumber than you are,” he says. Galo elbows him, chuckling.

“Nine years difference isn’t that bad, firefly,” he says. “Anyway, you don’t look a day over thirty.”

Lio gives him a _look._ Galo puts on his best innocent expression. 

“Please,” Lio says. “You thought I was _your_ age when you broke my mask. The Promare healed damage, so I guess that included damage from aging. Everyone thinks I’m younger than I am, it’s annoying.”

“‘Cuz you have a baby face,” Galo says. Lio snorts and whacks him in the side.

“You have a _stupid_ face,” he says.

“I have a _handsome_ face,” Galo says. “I’m Promepolis’s number one handsomest firefighter. Everyone says so.”

“Everyone?” Lio raises an eyebrow. 

“Well, _I_ say it.”

Lio laughs and stands up, brushing off his pants. 

“Okay, number one handsome firefighter,” he says. “I’d better get back to work. I’ll see you later?”

“Uh, yeah.”

Lio gives him a little wave and walks back inside. Galo sits on the roof for a bit, slightly stunned. Did Lio just call him _handsome?_

Further investigation is _definitely_ warranted.

***

_Thursday._

“Hey Lio, you want lunch? Remi made spaghetti.”

“No way, I know _all about_ Remi’s ‘spaghetti.’” Lio looks up, frowns. “Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?” he asks accusingly.

Galo looks down at himself.

“Shirts constrict my manly essence,” he says matter-of-factly.

Lio pinches the bridge of his nose.

“I’m declaring this office a shirt zone,” he says. “No shoes, no shirt, no service.”

“ _Uncool,”_ Galo says. “What if I take my pants off, too, though?”

 _“Galo._ Why.”

Galo leers. “I’d shut the door,” he says. “Private show.”

“Be serious,” Lio says.

“I’m as serious as a heart attack!” Galo says. “Listen. I get it. You’re not ready for full frontal Galo Thymos. Very few people are. But it’s here whenever you want it, firefly!” He slaps himself on the chest.

Lio rolls his eyes. “Okay, Galo,” he says. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Awesome!”

He’ll keep it in mind! That’s progress. Galo grins, picks Lio’s empty coffee mug up off his desk, and goes to get him a refill.

***

_Friday._

“You want to go out tonight?” he asks Lio, leaning in the doorway of his office.

“For pizza? Sure.” Lio doesn’t look up from whatever he’s reading.

“Sweet. It’s a date.”

Lio does look up then. Suspiciously. 

“Since I can’t tell when you’re being serious lately, this is a normal pizza night like all the other ones we’ve had,” he says. “It’s not a _date.”_

“Those other ones are all retroactively dates,” Galo says. He crumples up the to-do list Ignis gave him and tosses it at Lio’s trash can. He misses. “We’ve been dating for, like, weeks now, you just didn’t know it.”

Lio stands up, picks the balled-up paper off the floor, and throws it at Galo’s head. “That’s not how it works, Galo, you can’t _retroactively_ make something a date. And if you _could,_ those would be the sorriest excuses for dates anyone’s ever taken me on. There weren’t even candles.”

“Ah _ha!_ Candles! I knew you were a romantic! Okay, I’ll get a candle for tonight. What else? You wanna split a milkshake?”

“Galo. No candles. It’s not a date.”

“Says _you.”_

“Quit messing around.” Lio’s scowl is getting a little intimidating.

“Okay, okay!” Galo holds up his hands. “Just a normal pizza night, then. Two bros getting pizza. On a non-date. With no candles whatsoever.”

“That’s right,” Lio says, satisfied.

“Whatever you want, firefly.”

Lio glares at him. But at the end of the day, he’s waiting for Galo by the door when Galo comes out of the locker room. So. Winning.

They have an excellent non-date at Pizzamopolis. Lio can eat _almost_ as much as Galo, which is impressive. Galo doesn’t bring up candles, or kissing. He knows when not to push his luck. But he goes to sleep that night with a warm feeling in his chest. If he didn’t know better, he’d think the Promare were still around.


	3. Been Down So Long

The next couple of weeks pass by pretty uneventfully. They go on a lot of non-dates. Sometimes Meis and Gueira come along, or some or all of Burning Rescue, or both. Galo tells Lio about his foster family, about the history of matoi, about basically whatever pops into his head. Lio tells Galo what he’s working on, shares Mad Burnish stories, and gets _incredibly_ drunk one night on jello shots.

“Y’r like… a burning, blue… _flame,”_ he slurs, holding Galo’s face in both hands.

“Okay, boss,” Gueira says, tugging at him. “C’mon, time to go home.”

“Nooooooo,” Galo says. He’s had a not-insubstantial number of jello shots himself. Lio lifts one hand from Galo’s face, looks at it.

“Everything’s all… _wiggly,”_ he says, puzzled. “Is that… normal?” 

“Boss,” Gueira says, “please tell me you’ve had alcohol since the Promare. It affects us differently now.”

“What?” Lio says. 

“Oh, man,” Meis says. “How many jello shots did you _give_ him?” he asks Galo accusingly.

“I didn’t give him _any!_ They brought the tray around while you were in the bathroom! He kept taking more!”

“You didn’t _stop_ him? How many times could they have brought the tray around while I was in the bathroom?”

“You guys were both gone for like an _hour!”_ Galo whines. Meis blushes, for some reason.

“I feel GREAT!” Lio says loudly, gesticulating. “Is this being _drunk?_ Why don’t you do it all the time?”

“You’ll figure it out in the morning, boss. C’mon. Get off Galo’s lap.”

“He is my new throne,” Lio says, but he stands up and lets Gueira lead him, wobbling, out of the bar, Meis behind them.

“Hey, do you have a designated driver?” Galo yells, concerned. Meis raises his hand without turning around. That’s good. Meis is chill. Galo’s sad they’re leaving, but Aina and Lucia are still there, talking over each other and arguing with Remi about some additions they want to make to one of the mechs. So they can still have some fun. Galo leans his elbows on the table and dreamily considers the feeling of Lio’s hands on his face, Lio’s weight in his lap.

***

Aina makes fun of him all the next day, because Galo is hung-over as _shit._ Lio doesn’t even come in until late in the afternoon. He sees Galo, sitting on the breakroom couch with an ice pack on his head, and turns a bright shade of pink.

“Sorry,” he says sheepishly. Galo waves a hand. 

“No, man, _I’m_ sorry. I thought you’d been drunk before.” 

“Couldn’t. The Promare burned it up. Gueira told me. He didn’t become Burnish until he was seventeen, he had a frame of reference. I didn’t realize it would hit me so hard.”

“You were funny,” Galo says, grinning. 

“Well,” Lio says. “Okay. I’m gonna go…” He trails off, jerks his head toward his office. Galo wants to ask him what he meant when he said Galo was a burning blue flame, but he’s not sure Lio even remembers that, and he doesn't want to embarrass him, so he doesn’t say anything. 

Lio is much more careful about his alcohol intake from then on.

***

Another night, Lio finds him as he’s leaving Burning Rescue. “Hey, what are you doing later?” he asks.

“Absolutely nothing!” Galo says cheerfully.

“You want to come over to my place?”

“Really?” Galo raises his eyebrows suggestively. Lio whacks him in the stomach.

“Not like _that,_ dumbass! Just to see it! We finally got furniture.” 

“Yeah! Sounds nice.”

“Great.” Lio smiles. “I want to show it off. Our first home that’s not a camp! Or a cave. Or a desert ruin. Anyway. It _is_ nice.”

Lio hasn’t managed to get a motorcycle (or a license) yet, what with everything else that’s been going on, so Galo gives him a ride, Lio yelling directions in his ear and holding tight to his waist. Lio, Gueira, and Meis are renting half a duplex in an area that Galo would charitably describe as “run-down,” but Lio seems to like it; he’s grinning broadly as he hops off the bike and leads Galo through the door. He gives Galo a brief tour, showing off Gueira’s cacti and Meis’s shelf of fancy tea in the tiny kitchen.

“And this is my room,” he says, gesturing through a doorway on the second floor. Galo walks in.

It’s spartan, but nice; a plain bedframe, simple curtains, a shelving unit with few plants and books, a large painting on one wall.

“Is that a boat?” Galo asks, squinting at the painting.

“Maybe?” Lio says. “I found it at the thrift store.”

“Cool.”

Galo looks out the window. There’s a great view of the wall of the adjacent building.

“You don’t have a fire escape out here,” he says, frowning.

“Is that all you think about? Fire safety?”

“Pretty much!” Galo says cheerfully. “Let me see if they left you one of those fold-up ladders, sometimes they put one in the closet!”

“Galo…”

Galo opens the closet door.

He just stares for a second.

There are pallets of canned goods neatly stacked. Bags of rice and beans that must be fifty pounds each, and on top of them boxes of mac and cheese, instant mashed potatoes, dried fruit and beef jerky and other preserves, nearly filling the space. There are maybe three outfits hung carefully to one side, all some variety of black.

“Lio, why is your closet full of food?” Galo asks, brow furrowed.

“I like to have it around,” Lio says, an edge to his voice.

“Yeah, but there’s no room for your clothes! There’s enough stuff in here to feed a small army!”

“If you’ll recall, I _led_ a small army.” Lio crosses his arms. “There were times,” he says stiffly, “when Meis and Gueira and I didn’t have a lot of food. I like knowing that won’t happen again. Who knows when the pizza supply will dry up.”

“But…” 

Galo stops, staring at the makeshift pantry. He thinks about Meis and Gueira and Lio, all so strong with their fire, but all so _thin._ He thinks about the way Lio always stashes snacks in his desk drawer. He takes the words _didn’t have a lot of food_ and runs them through the filter of Lio’s stoicism, and what comes out the other end is, _sometimes we starved._

He shouldn’t be shocked. He _knows_ they had a hard time, he _knows_ that. But he still feels his heart break a little.

“Well!” he says, and plasters a smile onto his face before he turns around. “It’s good to be prepared! For emergencies!” He shuts the closet door.

“I think so too,” Lio says. He eyes Galo suspiciously. “You’re doing the thing again, I can _see_ it.”

Galo smiles harder. _“What_ thing?”

“Feeling sorry for me. Stop it. We were fine. Burnish make do.”

“What’s the grossest thing you ever ate?” Galo asks. 

Lio startles. “What? Why?”

“I just wanna know the grossest thing you ever ate.”

Lio furrows his brow, puzzled. “I guess… once I ate a hot dog I found in the trash? That was pretty gross.”

“Yeah, okay, see,” Galo crosses his arms, “that’s not being _fine._ That’s not _making do._ That’s _terrible.”_

Lio waves a hand. “People had it worse. We’re fine _now._ I’ve got supplies, it won’t happen again.”

“You’re damn right it won’t.” Galo nods firmly. “You ever have any problems, you come to me. I got your back.”

Lio smiles at him. “I know,” he says.

They both stand there for a moment. Before it can get weird, Lio says, “Hey, you want some tea? We can raid Meis’s stash, he won’t mind.”

“Sure!”

“I never had much of a chance to just sit around and drink tea, before,” Lio says thoughtfully. “I’ve found it to be quite… relaxing.”

Galo’s heart does a really weird thing in his chest. “Okay!” he says, a little too loudly. “Let’s do it!”

So they do.

***

Galo’s on late shift (they're still firefighters, just part-time construction workers, too) and comes in one evening to Aina and Lucia sitting in the breakroom giggling. When they see him, they start giggling harder.

“What?” Galo asks.

“You want to see something cute?” Aina asks.

“You know it!”

“Go look in the bunkroom!”

Lio has fallen asleep in the bunkroom, on Galo’s bunk, fully clothed, on top of the blankets. He’s curled up like a cat. Galo takes off his uniform jacket and drapes it over Lio’s still form. It envelopes him. Galo smiles. Lio looks _tiny_ when he’s asleep.

“Okay, I was expecting kittens or something, but that was pretty cute,” he says to Aina and Lucia when he comes back into the breakroom. 

“I know, right?” Aina says. “You’re here until morning, yeah?”

“Yeah. You guys here for a bit longer?”

“‘Til midnight,” Aina says. Lucia gives him her sharky grin and pulls a deck of cards out of her labcoat pocket. Uh oh. Galo takes the chair across from them and settles in for a long night.

***

Galo is down to twelve cents in penny poker money when there’s a sudden, hideous shriek from the bunkroom. _Lio._

Galo leaps up without thinking, knocking over his chair and dropping his cards. They scatter on the floor. He sprints to the bunkroom, bursts through the door.

“Lio!” he yells, ready to fight.

Lio is sitting up in the bed, wide-eyed, clutching Galo’s jacket to his chest.

“Galo! What!” he yells back. “It’s not! I’m fine! Go away!” He’s pale, breathing hard.

“NUH-uh!” Galo says indignantly, looking around. “You okay?” He doesn’t see anyone else in the room. He looks back at Lio, who’s still clutching the jacket. Galo’s heart is starting to slow down; there doesn’t seem to be any immediate threat, and Lio still has all his arms and legs. “What happened?” Galo asks.

“I had a nightmare! That’s all! I’m fine!” Lio snaps. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to… I didn’t mean to fall asleep here. I was just going to close my eyes for a second!”

Galo strides over to the bed and sits down next to Lio, who stiffens a little. Galo thinks about reaching over and putting a hand on his back, thinks better of it looking at the taut line of his shoulders.

“Nightmare, huh?” he says instead, concerned. “Must’ve been a doozy. You really yelled!”

“I...”

Lucia and Aina poke their heads around the door.

“Everything okay?” Aina asks.

Lio takes a deep breath.

“Fine,” he says. “I had a nightmare. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

Galo frowns. “You’re not disturbing us,” he says. “You want a ride home? Maybe you’d sleep better there. You guys can hold down the fort until I get back, right?” Aina and Lucia nod.

Lio hands Galo his jacket back.

“Okay,” he says.

***

Lio gets off the back of the bike at his door and then stands there for a long moment. He turns to Galo.

“You want to come in for a second?” he says.

“Yeah.” Galo pulls his helmet off. “I can’t stay too long, though,” he says regretfully. “I’m on call. I should really be at the station.”

“I know. Thanks for the ride. I just… I want to tell someone about my dream, and I think Meis and Gueira are asleep. The lights are out.”

“I’ll come in,” Galo says.

***

“I was back at the volcano,” Lio says softly, sitting on the ratty secondhand couch. “I had that ice bullet stuck in my chest. I was frozen in the ice. I was trying to call my fire, but… it wouldn’t answer. It was getting colder and colder, and the ice was… it was crushing me. I couldn’t breathe. When I screamed…” Lio rubs a hand across his face. “I was screaming for the Promare.”

Galo frowns. “That sucks,” he says. “You still miss them, huh.”

Lio picks at a loose thread sticking out of the couch. 

“I do,” he says. “Wouldn’t you miss your matoi tech, if it got taken away? Once I got out of the camp and really learned to use my powers… it was… it was _incredible._ I could _fly,_ Galo. I could make whatever I needed out of thin air. I could walk up walls. I could _fight._ And now I’m a… a useless _weakling.”_

Galo is offended by this on Lio’s behalf. “You’re not _useless!_ You work harder than anyone! And you can still fight! I _saw_ you take down a dude like twice your size!”

Lio smiles a little. “I _do_ know some jui jitsu,” he says modestly. “We’d learn it in secret. At the camp. My teacher was pretty badass.”

 _“You’re_ a badass,” Galo says, impressed. Lio’s smile fades, though.

“Not really,” he says. “Not without the Promare.”

“Uh. That’s not true,” Galo says. Lio looks at him.

“Remember when I had to testify against Kray?” Galo says reluctantly after a moment.

Lio looks away. “Yeah,” he says. 

“I was mess after that,” Galo says. “And you came storming down the hall and yelled at all those reporters to leave me alone, and you got right up in the security guard’s face and told him he was doing a shit job, and you cleared everybody out of the hallway just by being so mad, and you got me out of the building, and you put me in a cab. And I _know_ you were a mess too, because you were up next. You did all that for me anyway. It was the most badass thing I’ve _ever_ seen.”

Lio gives him a very puzzled look.

“You’ve seen me riding a flaming motorcycle in full armor,” he says.

“I said what I said,” Galo says firmly. “You’re still a badass, Lio Fotia. You just fight differently now.”

“Huh,” Lio says.

They sit in silence for a moment.

“I should probably go,” Galo says reluctantly. “Aina and Lucia go off shift soon, I need to be at the station or they’ll kill me. You gonna be okay? You feel a little better?”

“Yeah,” Lio says. “Don’t get killed by those two. Thanks again for the ride. And for talking.”

“Any time.” Galo stands up. “Get some sleep, okay?” he says.

“I will.”

Galo starts to leave, then sticks his head back around the front door.

“You’re a badass!” he calls to Lio in a loud whisper.

“Shut _up!”_ Lio calls back at the same volume.

Galo rides back to the station with a small, stupid smile on his face.

***

Lio’s out of sorts the next day. He slams around the station, banging his locker door shut, closing drawers with excessive force. When Galo pokes his head into Lio’s office around six (Galo was still on call but slept most of the day in the bunkroom and has the afternoon off), he finds him bent over a stack of papers, eyes suspiciously wet. When Lio looks up, a tear actually falls onto the paper, though Lio’s expression is more annoyed than anything.

“Hey, Galo,” he says. “You need something?”

“You still working?” Galo says.

“I can’t… I can’t figure out this _goddamn_ grant report,” Lio says angrily. “Restricted funds are _so idiotic._ They should just _give us_ the goddamn _money,_ we _know_ what to do with it! We’re not _stupid!”_ Another tear falls onto the paper. Lio doesn’t acknowledge it. 

“You still sad?” Galo says sympathetically.

Lio stares at him, a little disbelieving, and makes a broad gesture that encompasses the tear stains on his papers, the cramped, windowless office, the city of Promepolis, the entire _world._

“Yeah, I gotcha,” Galo says. “You want to go out for pizza? Comfort food and company. That’s the best for when you’re sad.”

Lio sniffs, swipes at his face angrily with one hand.

“Yeah,” he says. “I could really use a pizza right about now.”


	4. Take It As It Comes

They go to Pizzamopolis again. Galo’s made sure to eat there a lot since pizza guy came back to work, even though Galo can never remember his name. Pizza guy’s prosthetic arm is, Galo thinks vengefully, even cooler than Kray’s. And he makes the best damn pizza in the city, which Galo announces loudly from the patio every chance he gets. They’re inside now, though, so Galo is using his inside voice. He’s made Lio laugh a few times with dumb stories about Vinny, so the evening is already a success.

“I didn’t know you could train rats,” Lio says. “He really plays dead if Lucia pretends to shoot him?”

“Yeah! I didn’t know you could train them either, but Lucia knows how to do all kinds of weird shit,” Galo says. He takes the last slice of pizza, stuffs most of it in his mouth. 

“Lucia’s kind of scary,” Lio admits. Galo swallows his pizza.

“Totally,” he agrees. 

“I like her.”

“Yeah, she’s great.”

“Would Vinny play dead if _I_ pretended to shoot him?”

“You could try it! He does all kind of stuff. Lucia sets up tiny obstacle courses for him sometimes. He even plays fetch. He’ll do anything for snacks. He and I have a lot in common.” 

Lio laughs. “You’re both food-motivated?”

“Yeah, I’m totally motivated by food! Feed me pizza and I’ll do anything.”

Lio raises his eyebrows. “Anything?”

_“Literally_ anything.” Galo waggles his eyebrows at Lio.

“Be serious,” Lio says.

“I _am_ serious! I don’t know how many times I gotta say it!”

Lio looks at him pensively. “You’re serious, huh. Well, how do you know I’m not… a bad person who’d take advantage of your willingness to do _literally_ anything?”

“That’s stupid. I practically mind-melded with you, I _know.”_ He’s never been more sure of anything in his life, and it gives him a good, warm feeling. “I’m not wrong this time,” he says proudly.

Lio gives him a sharp look.

_“This_ time?” he says, voice taut.

Uh oh. Shit.

He can _see_ Lio put it together, watches in dismay as his brows knit low over his eyes.

_“Kray Foresight,”_ Lio hisses, voice drawn tight as piano wire. “I’ll kill him. I will utterly obliterate him. He _dared_ lay a hand on you…”

“No! Lio. He didn’t.” Galo flushes. “But I… I wanted him to.” Admitting that is, somehow, even worse. “I. Well. He was my hero. I tried to get him to… be more. But he didn’t. He didn’t want me.”

Galo remembers, with a full-body hot rush of shame, the way Kray had looked at him with absolute _disgust_ before neutralizing his expression and politely but firmly rejecting Galo’s clumsy advances. For a moment, the mask had slipped. At the time, though, Galo had just thought he was… too weedy, too forward, too loud, too uncouth… too _everything._ Not enough of anything. Not good enough for the Governor of Promepolis.

He’d slunk out of Kray’s office hunched and sick to his stomach, and hadn’t gone back for a week, until Kray summoned him and acted like it never happened. Neither of them had ever mentioned it again.

He’s distracted from his embarrassment by a muffled chuckle. He looks up.

Lio is _laughing_ into his hand.

“What…” Galo doesn’t know whether to be angry or ashamed.

“Oh my god, _Galo,”_ Lio says. _“You_ hit on _Kray Foresight?”_

Galo unknots a little, puzzled.

“Yeah? C’mon, Lio, I was young and stupid and I really liked him.” 

“Oh good lord, how old _were_ you? You _hit on_ Kray Foresight?”

“I was. Um. Seventeen and a half,” Galo mumbles. “Tried to wait until I was eighteen but I, uh, jumped the gun a little.”

Lio lets out a tiny, horrified shriek and starts laughing harder.

“Of _course_ you did,” he manages. “Oh my god, I can’t _believe_ you. Thank _god_ he didn’t take you up on it! And here I didn’t expect him to have a shred of decency!” 

“Yeah, I guess…”

“Can you _imagine?_ Aside from all the other ways that’s just _terrible,_ he would have _destroyed_ you, the man is _huge!”_

“Oh my god, _Lio,”_ Galo says, slightly scandalized.

“You reckless idiot! Do you have some kind of _danger_ kink? What were you _thinking?_ ”

_“Lio!”_ Galo says, half-laughing and half-offended. “He broke my heart! Like, twice, in different ways! He _double-_ broke my heart! Don’t mock my pain!”

“You _noodle,”_ Lio says, unrepentant. “You unbelievable _mushroom._ I can’t believe you _threw yourself_ at Kray Foresight while you were still _jailbait._ Oh my god, wait.” Lio stops for a second. “You do it to _me,_ too. This is your _thing._ You have some kind of _thing_ about throwing yourself at older men.”

“Lio, no offense, but _you_ look like jailbait,” Galo says with dignity. 

“I’m nearly a decade older than you and you’d do well to remember that,” Lio says haughtily, then leans across the table and pokes Galo in the ribs.

“Well, you act like…” Galo swats at his hand as Lio pokes him again. “You _act_ like you’re _half_ my age, you’re a _brat.”_

“I’ll show you _brat,”_ Lio says, and goes right for the ticklish spots near Galo’s armpits.

“Oh, two can play this game,” Galo says, and lunges across the table, grabbing at Lio and going for his armpits in turn. They grapple over their empty dishes, and Galo tries his best to get a good tickle in but Lio squirms like an eel, and they’re both laughing like idiots.

“Y’all want the check?” drawls a voice from above them. “Or do you want to order dessert _to go?”_

Galo suddenly remembers they’re still in the corner booth at Pizzamopolis. Their waitress is standing over the table, eyebrow raised, somehow managing to look both bored and amused. Lio lets Galo go and shoves him back across the table.

“Sorry, sorry,” Lio says to the waitress, still laughing, face red. “I’m having a delayed childhood! My therapist says play is important for well-being and happiness.”

The waitress snaps her gum. “Okay, hun,” she says tolerantly. “The playground is in the back, though, no horsing around in here.”

Lio looks at Galo, eyebrows raised, anticipatory.

“Uh, your _therapist?”_ Galo says.

“Check, please,” Lio says. “We’re going to the playground.”

***

Lio swings idly, feet brushing the ground. He’s sitting on one swing and Galo is sitting on the other, next to him. They’re the only people out here, which is good, because they’d monopolized the spiral slide for a good fifteen minutes, Lio giggling the entire time. He’s still smiling to himself, swinging his feet a little.

“I didn’t know you had a therapist,” Galo says. 

Lio looks up at him sharply. Galo silently curses his big mouth. “I don’t tell you _everything,”_ Lio says. “I need…” He stops, takes a breath. “I’m working on some things. You don’t necessarily need to know about it.”

“I get it, firefly, you need your space,” Galo says, but he feels an ache under his ribs. He can’t help adding, “You can talk to me if you want to, though.”

Lio gives him a long look. Galo can’t decide if he looks annoyed or… _sad._ Finally he looks away and sighs.

“I know, Galo, but it’s… it’s not your job. To fix me.”

“You’re not broken,” Galo says indignantly.

Lio gives him another long look.

“This is why you’re a firefighter and not a therapist,” he says. “I’m damaged goods. I have post-traumatic stress disorder, anger management challenges, and depression.” He ticks them off on his fingers. 

Galo shrugs. “Everybody’s got problems,” he says.

Lio raises his eyebrows.

“I don’t mean, like, yours aren’t a big deal or something,” Galo says hurriedly. “I mean, everybody’s got problems, so… you’re not alone.”

“Hm.” Lio scuffs his feet on the ground. “So you just _don’t care_ that I’ve got major issues.”

Galo furrows his brow.

“I think you’re great,” he says simply.

Lio opens his mouth, closes it again. He looks at the ground, then at Galo. He looks like he wants to say a lot of things, and can’t decide on one. Finally, he just says, “Thanks, Galo.”

“Yeah, totally.”

There’s a long silence. Galo wants to say something else, but he doesn’t know how to put words to it without sounding sappy; Lio makes him a better person. Lio’s the only one he’d start a fire for. 

Lio turns, twisting the swing’s chains around each other, then lets them untwist, spinning him around slowly. He lets his feet trail on the ground as he gradually comes to a stop. 

Then he looks at Galo. A wicked little smile turns up one corner of his mouth.

“Push me,” he says.

_“Push_ you?” Galo says.

“Galo Thymos, I’m having a delayed childhood and I demand to be pushed on this swing set,” Lio says imperiously.

Galo jumps up from his own swing. “Okay!” he says. He grabs the chains of Lio’s swing, hauls him back, and then gives the swing a good shove. Lio yelps as he careens forward. He swings back toward Galo and Galo sets his hands firmly on Lio’s lower back and shoves again, sending him swinging higher.

“Yeah!” Lio yells, pumping his legs.

“Lio de Galon!” Galo yells back for no particular reason, giving Lio another push.

“Galo de Lion!” Lio yells as he arcs up into the night sky. Right as he’s reaching the apex of the swing, he yells, “Watch this!” and launches himself into the air.

“Firefly, NO!”

***

Lio rips his pants during his ungraceful landing. The swing hits Galo in the face when he heedlessly rushes to help. Galo trips, falls down, and lands on top of Lio, who shrieks. They scramble up and run away, laughing and holding onto each other, when the manager of Pizzamopolis comes out to see what all the ruckus is. They stumble a few blocks before Galo realizes he left his motorcycle parked in front of the restaurant.

“I’ll get it tomorrow!” he decides. “Let’s just walk! You were going to get a cab home anyway, right? It’s only a few more blocks to my place, you can walk me home!”

Lio shakes his head. “You’re _such_ a…” Then he thinks better of whatever he was about to say. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll walk you home,” he says, smiling his little smile. Galo grins and shoves his hands in his pockets. 

They walk the few blocks in companionable silence. Galo turns to Lio when they get to his building’s door.

“Thanks for hanging out, firefly,” he says happily.

“Of course, Galo. I enjoy your company.”

“Yeah. Same.” 

They stand there awkwardly for a moment. Then Galo grins.

“This was a very romantic date,” he says.

“Aaaaand you ruined the moment.”

“You know, since you bought me dinner, I’ll _totally_ put ou...” Lio reaches up and puts a hand on Galo’s _entire face_ and shoves him a little.

“Do _not_ finish that sentence, you incorrigible flirt, what is _wrong_ with you,” Lio says, letting his hand rest on Galo’s face.

“Mmf,” Galo says into Lio’s hand. His lips brush Lio’s palm.

Lio _shivers._

Galo _sees_ it run through him, feels the tremor in Lio’s hand before he snatches it away like Galo burned him.

They stare at each other.

“I _knew_ it,” Galo says finally, breathless, triumphant. “You’re _into_ me! You _do_ wanna hit this!”

“Galo.” Lio is definitely turning red.

“Firefly, come on upstairs,” Galo says in an eager rush. “I’ll be so good to you, I promise. I might not one hundred percent know what I’m doing, but I’m a fast learner! You can show me everything! You want to, right?”

“I…” Lio stops. He bites his lip, hard.

Galo waits hopefully.

“I…” Lio sort of _sways_ toward Galo. Then he stiffens, straightens. “I have to go,” he says abruptly, and turns on his heel and practically _runs_ back down the street.

“Lio!”

Lio doesn’t stop, or turn. Galo, bereft, watches him disappear around the corner.

Galo’s apartment feels particularly empty that night. He doesn’t sleep very well.


	5. Break On Through

Lio’s avoiding him. Lio’s never done that before, but Galo can tell because when he comes into the breakroom, Lio is just leaving, and when he goes to poke his head into Lio’s office, Lio has to go out on an errand, and when Lio comes _back_ from the errand, he closes his door, which he hardly ever does but it means _Do Not Disturb_. It’s highly distressing. 

Galo sets up an ambush. He stays late. Only Varys and Remi are around, working on a mech. When Galo sees Lio slip out of his office, empty coffee mug in hand, he hurries quietly to the breakroom. Sure enough, Lio’s in there getting a refill. Galo stands in the door, arms crossed, until Lio turns around.

“Oh!” Lio says. “Galo! I was just, uh, leaving, I was…”

“Oh no you don’t,” Galo says, blocking the door. “You’re not going anywhere until you tell me why you’re avoiding me!”

Lio’s pale eyes widen. “I’m not _avoiding_ you!” he sputters. “I just, uh, I’m very busy today!”

“Lio. You’re _always_ busy. For real, I _know_ you’re avoiding me. Tell me what the problem is.”

Lio takes a deep breath.

“Okay, Galo, listen.” Lio sets his mug down. “Here’s the thing. About last night.”

“Yeah.”

Lio swallows. Then he seems to steel himself, and says, very seriously, “Your crush on me is very flattering. And I’ll admit I’m not above… enjoying the compliment. But I need you to stop now.”

“Oh.” Galo’s heart plummets into his shoes. It must show on his face, because Lio looks at him a little startled.

“Galo, don’t… It’s not _you,_ okay? Anyone would be lucky to have you. But… it’s just not going to happen.”

“Why _not?_ You really don’t… like me that way?” Galo says softly, crestfallen. “I thought for sure you did.”

“I…” Lio hesitates. “Galo, I like you more than anyone I’ve ever known. But. It’s a bad idea. It wouldn’t work. You _know_ it wouldn’t.”

 _“I_ don’t know _anything,”_ Galo says, jabbing a thumb into his chest. 

Lio closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. 

“Look, Lio,” Galo continues, undeterred, “if you _really_ don’t like me that way, fine, I’ll go kiss other people and I won’t bother you about it anymore. But I want you to look me in the eye and tell me you really, honestly don’t want to bone me.”

“Galo.”

“I’m serious. That’s all you have to do. Just tell me I’m an ugly slut and you wouldn’t touch me with a ten-foot pole.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Lio snaps.

“Ah _ha!_ So you _don’t_ think I’m an ugly slut!”

 _“Galo,”_ Lio says angrily, “you’re gorgeous, okay? Like you don’t know it! Of _course_ I want you!”

“Oh.” 

Galo’s face gets hot. He realizes a big part of him hadn’t been expecting Lio to actually _say_ it.

Lio glares daggers at him. Galo blushes harder.

“There. I admitted it,” Lio says, crossing his arms. “That’s what you were aiming for, correct? You could at least have the grace not to be _bashfully embarrassed,_ you pest, you’ve been shamelessly hitting on me for weeks. It’s all I can _do_ to keep my hands off you.”

_“Oh.”_

There’s a pause. Lio keeps glaring. Galo swallows.

“So why aren’t you,” he says. “Putting your hands on me.”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Lio says bluntly. “I’m a mess, and you’re so… I wouldn’t be good for you.”

Galo furrows his brow.

“That’s _dumb,”_ he says after a long moment.

Lio looks offended. “It’s not…”

“It’s _dumb,_ okay?” Galo interrupts. “I thought _I_ was the dumb one, but that’s the dumbest thing either of us has ever said! You know what’s not good for me? You acting like you know what’s not good for me! Like I’m too stupid to know what I want!”

Lio’s eyes widen. “Galo…” he starts. Galo cuts him off.

“I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but this isn’t rocket science! I think you’re great, and hot, and I wanna be with you, and you want me back, and I don’t _get_ what the problem is!”

“Galo. The _problem_ is, I’m a former _arson terrorist,_ I’m on _probation,_ I’m years older than you and I spent most of those years in a _war,_ I’m a nightmare-racked mess with... with PTSD. Go find someone fun.”

“No way. _You’re_ fun. Who else would hit me with a motorcycle and then pilot a giant mech with me and save the world? You’re the best! This’ll be _great._ Glad we had this talk, can I kiss you now?”

“You don’t know what you’d be getting yourself into!”

“I know _exactly_ what I’d be getting myself into! I’d be getting myself into _awesome makeouts!_ You’re not answering the question! Can I kiss you or what?”

Lio clenches his fists. “You stubborn… pig-headed… _walnut_ of a man!”

Galo smiles a little. “You’re not saying ‘no’ this time.”

“I’m a _walking disaster._ I’ll _destroy_ you,” Lio says. Galo grins at him.

“I’d like to see you _try,_ big boss,” he says.

“Galo.”

Galo flexes a bicep. “Don’t underestimate the burning soul of Galo Thymos! I can handle whatever you dish out and you _know_ it, Fotia! Let’s _do_ this thing!”

“Galo, god _damn_ it.” Lio is still just _standing there._ Galo gives him his best, cheekiest, most challenging grin.

“Unless you’re _chicken,”_ he says.

Lio narrows his eyes. “Ex _cuse_ me?”

“You heard me. I think you’re _scared.”_

Lio snorts. “What could I possibly have to be scared of?”

“You’re scared of getting _set aflame_ by the blazing passion of my burning soul.”

“That’s the stupidest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

“Prove me wrong!”

Lio makes a small angry noise, steps forward, and grabs Galo’s shirt, pulling him down.

“Yeah, that’s it, firefly, bring it on home,” Galo says breathlessly, and Lio says, “Shut _up,”_ and reaches up with his other hand and grabs the hair on the back of Galo’s head and pulls him down further and finally… _finally…_ kisses him.

Oh, wow. There’s tongue. There’s _teeth_. Galo’s been kissed before, but never with such naked longing. Never, he might even say, with such _burning passion._ He tries to give as good as he gets, burying his hands in Lio’s silky hair, sliding his tongue against Lio’s when it pushes into his mouth. Lio makes another small noise, and it doesn’t sound angry this time, it sounds like… a _moan._ Oh, holy shit. 

Lio’s still got his hand fisted in Galo’s shirt and his other hand in Galo’s hair when he breaks the kiss, and Galo doesn’t even have time to catch his breath before Lio plants a foot behind his leg and does some kind of fucking jiu jitsu move that tips him over onto the floor. Lio doesn’t let him fall too hard, but once he’s got Galo down on his back, he swings a leg over and _sits_ on him, straddling his hips and leaning forward to kiss him again, grabbing Galo’s wrists and pinning his hands by the sides of his head. 

“Mmm!” Galo says into Lio’s mouth. Lio pulls back, but doesn’t let go of Galo’s wrists. He’s looking down at Galo from inches away, and the intensity of his pink eyes makes Galo’s breath catch.

“Galo,” he says. “I’ve wanted you ever since I called you an idiot on top of the Parnassus at sunset. I’ve been burning up with desire. I just… I don’t think this is a very good idea.”

“We’re _awesome_ at bad ideas. Share your fire with me, baby,” Galo says.

“You’re so cheesy,” Lio says, exasperated. “Are you _sure_ you want to do this? You don’t want someone who’s not a depressed, emotionally unstable wreck of a person?”

“I want _you,_ Lio,” Galo says, frowning. 

Lio looks at him for a long moment.

Then he leans down until his lips are brushing Galo’s ear.

“Then in the interests of full disclosure, I should warn you,” he says softly.

“Yeah?” Galo says.

“The things I want to do to you,” Lio whispers in his ear, “are worse than arson.”

“Oh, wow,” Galo says.

“I want to make you _scream.”_

“Oh my god,” Galo says.

“I want to tie you up and make you come until you can’t see straight. I want you hoarse from begging for it, and then I want to fuck you until you can’t stand up.”

“Holy shit, okay!” Galo says. He pauses, then reluctantly adds, “But you probably shouldn’t do that in the breakroom?”

Lio _growls_. He sounds frustrated. “You’re right,” he says. “I don’t want to be _interrupted._ Take me to your place.”

Galo can’t get the two of them onto his motorcycle fast enough. They’re lucky he doesn’t get pulled over for speeding.


	6. Light My Fire

They burst through the downstairs door of Galo’s building and Galo barely has time to close it before Lio has him up against the wall, pulling his head down to kiss him again. Lio slides a hand under the hem of Galo’s t-shirt, cool fingers moving deft and sure up his chest to his nipple and _pinching,_ and Galo makes a very unsexy strangled noise. He’s _burning._

“Upstairs,” he gasps out when Lio lets him come up for air. “Not… _hff…_ in the hall…” Lio quirks the corner of his mouth up and backs off, letting his hand slip out of Galo’s shirt.

“After you,” Lio says, gesturing magnanimously. Then he proceeds to grope Galo’s butt all the way up the stairs. He presses himself against Galo’s back as Galo fumbles with his keys.

Lio says, _“God,_ you’ve got a nice ass,” still groping it. Galo can’t seem to get the key in the right way up. “I want to bite it,” Lio continues. “Just sink my teeth in. I want to eat you out. Have you ever been rimmed before? I bet you’d like it.” Galo realizes he’s trying to unlock his apartment door with his motorcycle key. With shaking hands, he finally gets the door key lined up.

“I’m going to suck your dick,” Lio says, and Galo almost drops his whole keychain. “I want you to squeeze my head between your thighs and pull my hair.”

 _“Lio,”_ Galo says desperately, finally getting the key in the lock.

“I bet you’re pretty big,” Lio says, “I wonder if I could get you all the way down my throat,” and Galo _slams_ the door open and careens into his apartment, Lio sauntering behind.

“I don’t have much of a gag reflex,” Lio says casually. “Do you want to hear about how I practiced, or are you the jealous type?” 

Galo shuts the door behind him, locks it. Lio is standing in the center of Galo’s living room like he owns the place, looking at Galo with a raised eyebrow. 

“Jealous,” Galo says breathlessly. _“Tell me.”_

Lio smiles slowly. 

“Meis and Gueira sometimes let me get in on their thing,” he says. “We never had much, so they were generous with me. Have you ever been double-teamed? It’s pretty fun.”

 _“Fuck,”_ Galo says weakly, leaning his back against the door.

“But I think I prefer having you all to myself,” Lio says, smile turning wicked. “I can’t wait to get you naked. Take your shirt off for me?”

Galo practically pulls a muscle whipping his shirt off over his head.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to tear my eyes away from this,” Lio says, stalking forward. He slams a hand into the door by Galo’s head. He has to reach up to do it, but it’s still kind of intimidating. “I want to touch you,” Lio says.

“Lio, if you _don’t,_ I’ll probably die,” Galo says. Lio grabs Galo’s pecs, one in each hand, and squeezes. Then he presses his face right between them and _licks_ Galo’s _chest,_ then _bites_ him with small sharp teeth right below the collarbone.

“Hah!” Galo gasps as Lio’s hands slide down his chest and stomach. One hand grabs the crotch of his loose pants, gropes him through the fabric. Then stops.

“Galo,” Lio says, amused, “are you going _commando?”_

“Wild and free, baby,” Galo gasps as Lio’s hand starts to move again, rubbing at him through the cloth. “Free-balling is—hah!—good for you, you know, it’s AAH!”

Lio has abruptly shoved his hand down the front of Galo’s pants and grabbed his dick.

“Hmm, I was right, you _are_ pretty big,” Lio says, sounding pleased. With his other hand he pops the button on Galo’s fly, pulls the zipper down, and extricates him from his pants. Galo’s already so hard he can feel his own pulse against Lio’s palm. Lio loosens his grip and gives Galo a few slow, light strokes, a smug smile pulling up the corners of his lips.

Galo throws his head back so it thunks against the door. “Nnn… hah… you tease…” Galo says as Lio keeps stroking him. He feels like he’s being gently electrocuted.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tease you too much,” Lio says. “I’ve been thinking about doing _this_ for too long.”

Galo looks down, stunned, as Lio, with no hesitation, drops to his knees. He grips Galo’s hips, leans forward, and runs his tongue up the underside of Galo’s dick.

Galo makes a garbled noise as Lio does some more _really awesome_ things with his tongue. Then Lio pulls back, looks up at him.

“Want me to see if I can deepthroat you?” Lio asks.

“Lio,” Galo pants, “do you really think I’m going to say ‘no’ to anything you want to do to me?”

Lio grins. “Okay then!” he says cheerfully, and swallows Galo’s dick almost all the way to the base.

“Holy _fuck,”_ Galo gasps as Lio swallows around him, pulls back, and then repeats the motion, bobbing his head slowly, looking up at Galo through his eyelashes. Lio looks _so good_ with Galo’s dick in his mouth, lips stretched around it, eyes glinting with wicked humor. If being touched was like being electrocuted, _this_ is like getting hit by lightning. 

“Oh, _god,”_ Galo says, hands pressed to the door behind him, _"_ you’re full of… of fiery passion… You’ve been… hff… holding out on me, Lio!”

Lio lets Galo’s cock slip out of his mouth with a wet pop, looks up at him wryly.

“You,” Lio says, “have _no_ idea.”

“I’m starting to… to get the pictu- _oh god!”_ Lio swallows him again, then lets go of Galo’s hips and grabs his hands, gently but firmly placing them on top of his head.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Galo chants, threading his fingers into Lio’s hair as carefully as he can. Lio keeps deepthroating and sucking him until Galo’s legs are shaking.

“Lio, Lio,” Galo moans, “I… I can’t, I’m gonna…”

Lio stops abruptly, pulls back off his dick. Galo makes an embarrassingly high-pitched noise of protest. Lio wraps a hand around the base of his dick, squeezes.

“No,” Lio says, and Galo gasps at the command in his voice. “The first time I make you come, it’s going to be in a bed like a civilized person. I want to do this right.”

“You were doing it _really, really_ right,” Galo whines.

“Go to the bedroom and take your pants off,” Lio says, and Galo has the traitorous thought that he could really get used to being ordered around. 

He stumbles to the bedroom, kicking off his shoes and tripping over his pants in his haste to get on the bed. He flops down onto it, then realizes he still has his socks on and quickly peels them off before Lio walks in casually. Lio stops at the foot of the bed, lets his eyes rake up and down Galo’s body. Lio starts unbuttoning his shirt.

“Yeah,” Galo says, watching hungrily. “You could be a lot more naked right now.”

Lio very deliberately slows down, carefully unbuttoning the next button.

“Touch yourself,” Lio says, that commanding tone back in his voice. “I want to see.”

Galo flushes. “Okay,” he says, spreads his legs a little, licks his hand, and grabs his dick. This seems kind of silly; Lio is _right there_ , he could be touching Galo himself. But at this point if Lio told him to put on bunny ears and hop, Galo would do it.

“Very good,” Lio says, unbuttoning another button as Galo gives himself a few rough strokes. “You look even better than I imagined.”

That hits Galo in the gut. His hand falters for a second. “You… thought about me?” he asks.

Lio unbuttons another button. His shirt is mostly open now, revealing tantalizing glimpses of a pale, smooth chest and stomach.

“Sometimes,” Lio says. “Late nights when I couldn’t sleep. Or early mornings. I’d think about doing what I plan to do next. Do you want to know what that’s going to be?” He unbuttons the last button, shrugs one shoulder fluidly out of his shirt.

 _“Yeah,”_ Galo says, tightening his grip a little, rocking up into his own hand. 

“Stop,” Lio says. Galo stops moving his hand.

“Hands flat on the mattress,” Lio says. Galo slaps his hands down on the sheets.

Lio shrugs his other shoulder out of his shirt and lets it fall to the floor.

“I’m going to climb onto that bed,” he says, “and suck your dick while I finger your ass. I’m going to stop every time you get close, and I’m going to make you beg for it. And when you can’t stand it anymore, I’m going to let you come in my mouth. How does that sound?”

 _“Fucking awesome,”_ Galo says.

***

Half an hour later, Galo’s wondering why he never bothered to put a finger up his ass before, because he’s ascending to another plane of reality. Lio, hand slippery with lube, is curling his finger inside Galo and hitting something that… well, if being touched was like getting electrocuted, and being deepthroated was like getting hit by lightning, then being fingered while Lio lazily licks at his dick is like something even more extreme that Galo can’t think of, because his brain is basically spaghetti.

“Please, please, please,” he moans, probably louder than necessary, but he’s lost all capacity for volume control. Lio’s already gotten him close maybe four, five times and stopped, and then started working him up again, merciless. “Please, Lio, please, let me…”

Lio looks up at him, amused. “You _have_ been good. Maybe I can let you have a reward,” he says, smiling. “What’s your refractory period like?”

“What?” Galo gasps.

“How fast can you get it up again after you come?”

“Oh. Uh.” Galo has to really gather himself to dredge up the answer. “Maybe fifteen, twenty minutes?”

“Okay, good.”

“Why?” Galo manages.

“I have _plans,”_ Lio says. “This is just step one.”

“Jesus,” Galo says.

“Are you ready, Galo? I’m going to make you come.”

“Oh my god,” Galo says, and then can’t say anything anymore as the wet heat of Lio’s mouth envelopes his dick, Lio’s finger curling inside him again and hitting that good spot. Galo comes almost _instantly_ , shaking, fighting not to thrust his hips up as Lio swallows around him. 

After Lio has finished licking him clean, Galo lies there dazed for a long moment, trembling, limbs weak. When he opens his eyes, Lio is looking down at him, _extremely_ smug. 

“Let me take a second and wash up,” Lio says. “You wait right here for me, okay? I’m nowhere near done with you.”

“Okay,” Galo says faintly.

Lio is gone for an indeterminate amount of time, which Galo spends staring stupidly at the ceiling. Then Lio comes back into the room. He’s completely naked, pants folded over his arm. Galo’s mouth goes dry. Lio sets his pants carefully on Galo’s dresser. Then he picks his shirt up off the floor, folds it, and puts it on top of his pants. Then he sets a damp washcloth on the nightstand and picks up the lube.

“Okay,” he says, and finally looks at Galo. “You ready for step two?”

“Holy shit, yeah! Um, what is it?”

“I’ll show you.”

Lio climbs onto the bed and _slinks_ up Galo’s body. Even though it probably hasn’t been fifteen or twenty minutes yet, Galo’s dick twitches. 

Lio positions himself over Galo, straddling him, up on his knees above Galo’s hips. Lio, naked, makes Galo think of fine china and chandeliers and other things he can’t afford. Lio’s _elegant,_ pale eyelashes like spun glass, fine hair like silk, skin smooth as porcelain, dick hard and pink and curved slightly to the left. You’d never know, looking at him like this, that he once devoured an entire Inferno Volcano Margherita Megamax so fast he made himself sick; that he has a filthy mouth; that he hoards fifty-pound bags of dried beans in his closet; that he fought the world and won; that he ate a hot dog out of the trash. But Galo knows. It makes him fierce with affection. He wants to worship Lio with his hands, with his mouth. 

“Give me one hand,” Lio says.

Galo obediently presents his right hand. Lio squeezes a dollop of lube onto Galo’s fingers, coats his first and middle finger. Then he guides Galo’s hand between his legs. Galo’s palm grazes Lio’s balls and then his fingers are pressing into the warm cleft behind them, Lio’s hand firm on his.

“Do you know how to get me ready?” Lio asks.

“Hhhh?” Galo says.

“I want you inside me,” Lio says.

Galo manages to get his remaining brain cells working enough to say, “I thought you, I thought you wanted to do that to _me?”_

“I changed my mind,” Lio says. “I want to make sure you like it. And I'm _pretty sure_ you’re going to like _this.”_

“Ahaha, okay! But next time, you can…”

“Shh.” Lio puts a finger of his free hand to Galo’s lips. Galo shushes, wide-eyed. “Use your fingers first,” Lio says. “You can start with two, but go slow.”

“O-okay.” 

Lio guides him, showing him how to work his fingers in, how to find that sensitive spot inside him, how to stretch him open. Lio makes breathy little sounds, little moans of satisfaction, whenever Galo does something right, and it makes Galo feel like he’s about to explode. Lio is hot and tight around his fingers, and keeps leaning down to kiss him, and that sometimes bends Galo’s wrist at kind of an uncomfortable angle, but it’s _so_ worth it. At some point, Galo’s dick becomes fully invested in the proceedings again, but he doesn’t even notice until Lio smiles down at him and says, “Okay, I think we’re ready to go.”

“Wha… you sure?” Galo says. Lio grabs his wrist, slides his fingers out. Then he holds up Galo’s hand, grabs the washcloth, and swabs him clean of lube. Galo almost laughs. Lio is so _prepared._

“Do I need to use a condom for this?” Lio asks.

“Uh?” Galo says. 

“Remi offered to do a pretty thorough physical on me after I moved into Burning Rescue, I’ve been cleared,” Lio says. “What about you? Do you have any weird diseases.”

“No? I got tested after last time I did anything like this, I’ve only ever done blowjobs, anyway…”

“Good,” Lio says. He furrows his brow. “This is the first time you’ve done this? You sure you want to?”

“Lio, I’ve never been more sure of anything in my _life,”_ Galo says desperately. “Is there anything else we need to talk about or can we move this along? We need to compare family trees? You wanna know the names of my highschool football teammates?”

“I do _not,”_ Lio says with a wry smile. “Okay, let’s go.” He squeezes out some more lube into his hand, wraps his hand around Galo’s dick, and slides it between his asscheeks.

“Don’t move,” Lio says. “Let me get situated.”

“You know, Lio, some of your dirty talk needs a little wor- _oh god!”_

Galo barely manages to hold still as Lio sinks down onto him slowly, biting his lip. All Galo can feel or think about is _warm, tight, slick, Lio._

“Fuck, you’re big,” Lio says hoarsely, halfway down. _“God._ Feels…” He stops, shudders.

“I’m not… I’m not hurting you, am I?” Galo gasps. In answer Lio just starts pushing down again, until Galo is all the way in.

 _“Ah,”_ Lio says softly. “Feels good.”

“Okay, great, cool, I’m glad,” Galo babbles, hands spasming on Lio’s thighs. Lio laughs softly.

“You want me to move?” he whispers.

“Hhnngh!” Galo says eloquently. “Lio, I’m _dying, please…”_

Lio strokes a gentle hand down his chest. Then he leans forward until his face is close to Galo’s, resting his hands on Galo’s pecs.

“I hope you have insurance on this bed,” he breathes, “because I intend to break it.” Then he starts to move.

“Fuck!” Galo yelps. “Lio!” He tightens his grip on Lio’s thighs, holding on for dear life as Lio starts gradually picking up the pace. In surprisingly short order, he’s slamming himself down onto Galo’s dick with as much force and fury as he brought to their fight. The headboard starts banging rhythmically against the wall, but Galo _really_ doesn’t care. They could ram right through the wall and keep fucking in the rubble of the neighbor’s living room and Galo wouldn’t care. 

Galo can barely keep it together, but he _does_ know there’s something he wants to do; Lio has been working really hard to blow his mind this whole time, he can at least _try_ to return the favor.

“Gimme… gimme the lube,” he pants.

Lio pauses, furrows his brow. “Everything feel okay?” he asks, concerned.

“Yeah, yeah, great, just gimme the lube,” Galo insists, holding out a hand. Lio fishes the lube out of the sheets and hands it over. Galo slathers his hand and wraps it around Lio’s dick.

 _“Oh,”_ Lio says softly as Galo starts stroking him. Lio starts to move again, more gently this time, rolling his hips in time with Galo’s hand, gasping out little “Ah! Ah!” cries that make Galo want to scream. 

_“Fuck,”_ Galo says instead, “fuck, you’re so fucking hot,” and it’s not the most _poetic_ thing he’s ever come up with, but it seems to work because he feels Lio tighten around him. Galo’s pretty new to this dirty-talking stuff, but he decides to keep going.

“Lio,” he says breathlessly, “let me see you come.”

“Ah, I’m close,” Lio gasps.

Galo speeds up his strokes a little.

“C’mon, firefly,” he says, a bit of a growl in his voice, “give it to me.”

“Galo…” Lio says, and then he throws his head back and _comes,_ gasping, spilling over Galo's hand, his whole body shaking. Galo looks up at him in awe as Lio rides it out, making little keening cries and moans, only gradually stilling and slumping forward onto Galo’s chest.

“Oh… Galo…” Lio says into his neck.

“Holy shit,” Galo says. Then, to Galo’s complete shock, Lio starts to move again, thrusting himself back onto Galo’s dick languidly, slower than before, but enough to bring Galo almost immediately to the edge.

“Galo,” Lio says again into his neck, voice blurry, “you’re so good,” and that’s all it takes. Galo comes so hard he practically whites out. He distantly hears Lio murmuring “Yes, yes, yes,” against his skin as he arches up into Lio’s body, hands clenching on Lio’s thighs until he collapses back onto the bed, panting.

For a long time afterward, they just lie there, breathing on each other. Lio finally stirs. 

“Hnn,” Galo protests, clutching at him.

“Let me get us cleaned up a little,” Lio says, fumbling for the washcloth. He lets Galo slowly slip out. Galo can barely move, and just grumbles blearily as Lio gently wipes him down, then gets up and goes into the bathroom. Galo’s eyes start to fall shut, but he makes them stay open until Lio comes back.

“That. Was. _Awesome,”_ Galo manages. “God _damn._ Y’r really good at sex!” He squints at Lio, standing oddly hesitant by the side of the bed. “Y’r stayin,’ right?” he says, a bit of concern breaking through his post-orgasmic haze.

Lio tugs at the blankets.

“If you move over,” he says softly.

Galo moves over and rolls onto his side, and Lio nestles in underneath the covers. Galo hadn’t taken Lio for the big spoon, but that’s where he ends up, and it feels right. _Everything_ feels right.

Galo dozes off, Lio tucked warm and snug against his back.

***

Galo wakes up slowly. For a moment, he can’t figure out why something seems off. Then he realizes Lio’s not in the bed pressed up against his back anymore. He forces his eyes open, blinks at the dark room.

Lio is standing by the window, looking out at the night, wrapped in a blanket.

“Firefly, what are you doing?” Galo says, groggy.

“I don’t know. What _am_ I doing?” Lio says to the window.

“What?”

“Do you… Do you think…” Lio trails off, stops.

“Nope, I don’t think,” Galo says cheerfully. But Lio turns to look at him and doesn’t laugh, and Galo suddenly feels very awake.

There’s a silence as Lio looks at him, something in his wide, pale eyes that Galo can’t read.

“This was probably a bad idea,” Lio says softly. He sounds distressed.

“Firefly,” Galo says gently, “come back to bed.”

“I should go,” Lio says, but he takes a step toward Galo. Galo reaches out a hand carefully like he’s trying to pet a stray cat.

“No, you shouldn’t,” Galo says. “You should stay here and let me cuddle you. You can put your cold feet on me.”

Lio cracks a little smile, takes another step toward the bed.

“That’s it, c’mon, love,” Galo says.

Lio freezes, smile vanishing.

Galo quickly replays the words in his head, looking for the mistake. He can’t find it.

“Don’t call me that,” Lio says, voice hoarse.

_Oh._

Galo lets his hand drop. He feels gut-punched. He thinks he might die.

“Not unless…” Lio says.

Galo holds himself very still. He doesn’t even breathe.

Lio pulls the blanket tighter, draws himself up, and squares his jaw.

“Not unless you mean it,” Lio says, and his voice _almost_ doesn’t shake.

Galo can breathe again.

“Of course I mean it,” he says, and his own voice sounds unfamiliar, husky and soft. “I love you, Lio Fotia. I love you with all of my burning soul. Please come back to bed.”

“Okay,” Lio whispers, and he takes the last few steps to the bed and crawls in under the covers and buries his face in Galo’s chest, and Galo holds onto him and pretends not to feel the wetness on Lio’s cheeks, or the way his breath hitches slightly every once in a while. Galo holds on like he’s never going to let go.

He’s not sure when he falls back asleep, but it’s only long after Lio has stilled and started breathing deep, dreaming breaths into his chest; heart-breakingly strong, courageously fragile, and fiercely warm in his arms. 


	7. When the Music's Over

Galo wakes up gradually to the welcome sight of Lio beside him, leaning up on one elbow, studying him. The sun is coming in through the curtains, but Galo can tell from the angle that it’s still pretty early. The light glints off Lio’s hair, which is mussed and sticking out at odd angles. He’s gorgeous. Galo grins hugely.

“G’morning, love,” Galo says, voice thick with sleep.

The corner of Lio’s mouth quirks up and he turns a delicate shade of pink. He runs a finger up Galo’s chest.

“Good morning, Galo Thymos,” he says, very formally. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I have to tell you that despite my better judgement, I’m very much in love with you.”

 _“Duh,”_ Galo says, still grinning. “We’re totally in love, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you this whole time.”

“Well.” Lio circles his finger around Galo’s nipple. “There’s a difference between being _in love_ and, and I’m paraphrasing here, wanting to ‘hit this.’ I wasn’t sure there was more to it. I thought maybe you just wanted to have some fun together.”

“Wow. You know what?” Galo says. “I’m glad I’m stupid, because you _think_ too much.”

Lio pinches his nipple vengefully. Galo yelps.

“I’m still not sure this is a good idea,” Lio says, smiling wryly, “but what the hell. That never stopped either of us before.”

“It’s the _best_ idea, firefly,” Galo says with certainty.

“I hope you still think so when…”

“When what?”

Lio sighs. “I’m still going to be sad. And angry. And… well, mostly those two things. I’m going to have days when I’m not great to be around.”

“I know,” Galo says softly. “But, firefly, some shit happened to you that you’re allowed to be sad and angry about.”

Lio sighs again. “I just really don’t want to hurt you,” he says.

“You won’t,” Galo says. “Not on purpose. And even if you do, I know you’re good for it. Maybe we’ll have a fight! I’ll kick your ass again.”

Lio chuckles. “I _let_ you win.”

Galo wraps one arm around him and squeezes him. “I know, and you’re never going to let me forget it. Seriously, though. I could handle you as a giant fiery _dragon,_ I think I can handle you having _feelings._ You don’t have to be so careful with me, or, or _protect_ me. I won’t break.”

“How do you know,” Lio says.

Galo thinks about this for a long moment.

“Because if I was gonna break I would have broken already,” he says finally. Lio looks up at him, startled.

“Lio,” Galo says accusingly, “did you forget I watched my whole family die in a fire?”

“Oh,” Lio says softly.

“I mean, I had a pretty cushy life, _after_ that,” Galo says. “But it wasn’t… it wasn’t great.”

Lio lays a hand on Galo’s chest.

“I guess I _did_ sort of forget,” he says. “You’re so goddamn cheerful all the time, it’s hard to believe anything bad ever happened to you.”

Galo shrugs. “Gotta stay positive,” he says.

Lio meets his eyes. His pink eyes are intense, unwavering.

“Burnish make do,” he says.

“What?”

Lio threads his fingers through Galo’s.

“We’re not that different after all, is what I mean,” he says.

“Yeah. We both have dark, tragic pasts,” Galo says. “Like anime heroes.”

 _“Wow,”_ Lio says. “That’s one way to put it.”

Galo grins at him. 

“Let’s not dwell on our dark pasts,” he says. “We should concentrate on our bright _futures!_ C’mon, firefly, I’ll make you breakfast.”

***

They pull up to Burning Rescue headquarters on Galo’s motorcycle, Lio’s arms wrapped around his waist. Galo parks the bike, and Lio jumps off. Galo swings his leg over the bike, stands up.

“Hey, firefly,” he says, holding out his hand. Lio turns around.

Lio stares at Galo’s outstretched hand. Galo wiggles his fingers. Lio looks up at Galo, brow furrowed.

“You want to walk into Burning Rescue holding hands with the former leader of the Mad Burnish,” he says flatly.

Galo rolls his eyes.

“You’re a lot of things, Lio Fotia,” he says, “and one of them is the former leader of the Mad Burnish. But you’re also the founder of a non-profit with an office _in that building_ , and you’re a person I’m proud to know, and you’re a total brat, and you’re my boyfriend. So _yes,_ I want to hold hands with you.”

“Oh. Okay.” Lio, looking a little stunned, takes Galo’s offered hand. Galo, tugging Lio with him, strides to the door of Burning Rescue, kicks it open, and bursts through, holding up Lio’s hand in his.

“We’re here!” he announces. “We got together!”

“Galo!” Lio yelps. 

Ignis doesn’t even look up from his laptop. _“Finally,”_ he grumbles. 

Remi gives them a laconic thumbs-up from cobra position on his yoga mat in the corner. Aina and Lucia look up from the mech engine they’re elbows-deep in, look at each other, and immediately start giggling. Varys, half-napping on the breakroom couch, pushes his hat up off his eyes.

“Wait, what?” he says groggily. “You weren’t already?” Lucia and Aina start giggling harder.

“Alright, alright, congrats, mazel tov, all that,” Ignis says, waving a hand. “You know the rules. No excessive PDA in the common areas, no canoodling on company time, and absolutely no sex in the bunkroom.” He looks around the room severely. “Now get back to work, you chuckleheads.”

“Did you really just use the word ‘canoodling,’” Galo says. He squeezes Lio’s hand, lets go. “You see, firefly?” he says softly, just for Lio. “No big deal.”

Lio, to his surprise, pulls him down and quickly pecks him on the lips.

“Wooooo!” Lucia hoots. Lio steps back.

“Okay,” Lio says, flushed but smiling. “I guess I’m… going to my office? I have… things to do today.”

“I _bet!”_ Lucia yells. “Things named _Galo!”_ Aina steps on her foot. 

“What did I _just_ say,” Ignis says in Lucia’s general direction with a long-suffering sigh.

“No canoodling, boss, I promise,” Galo says, grinning. “See you later, Lio.”

“Yes. See you later.” Lio, still red and smiling, ducks his head a little and crosses the room, goes into his storage closet, and carefully shuts the door behind him.

“I’m in love with that guy,” Galo says happily, pointing to the closed door. Lucia snorts.

“Galo, you’re such a sap,” she says. “You wanna help us add more lasers to this mech?”

“ _Hell_ yeah!”

Incredibly, nothing gets set on fire that day, either inside or outside Burning Rescue. And Galo figures that in the end, not every day is going to be perfect, and not every moment is going to be happy, and not everything that's broken in the world is going to get fixed. But that’s okay. 

Galo figures they’ll make do.

**Author's Note:**

> Soundtrack
> 
> [Lio](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1be8lZH_dA)
> 
> [Galo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_U2VaxOPFE)
> 
> [Galolio](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGRzz0oqgUE)
> 
> Find me on Twitter @SerotoninShift


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